With 108 wins, the Red Sox clearly have something going, but the Astros' starting pitching, bullpen and lineup will be very tough to beat.

2 Related

Joe West, whose 5,194 regular-season games are second to Bill Klem's 5,375, will be the American League Championship Series crew chief, the commissioner's office said Thursday.

Umpire Scott Barry will be behind the plate for Friday night's NL opener between the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers. Alan Porter will be at first, Davis at second, Hunter Wendelstedt at third, Jim Wolf in left and Brian Gorman in right.

Greg Gibson will be the replay umpire in New York for the first two games. He'll join the crew for Game 3 while Barry switches to the replay room. Gibson would be behind the plate for a Game 7.

James Hoye will call balls and strikes for Saturday night's AL opener between the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros. Vic Carapazza will be at first, West at second, Mark Carlson at third, Chris Guccione in left and Mark Wegner in right.

Bill Miller will be the replay umpire for the first two ALCS games. He'll then join the crew while Hoye goes to the video center. Miller would be the Game 7 plate umpire.

Angel Hernandez, who was criticized by players and fans for his performance in the last two games of the American League Divisional Series between the New York Yankees and Red Sox, was not eligible to work in the LCS due to a MLB rule, which prevents officials from working in consecutive series.

Hernandez, who has been a major league umpire since 1991, will be eligible to work the World Series, which he has worked twice before but not since 2005.

The Cuban-born Hernandez is embroiled in a racial discrimination lawsuit against MLB, in which he states he has been passed over for promotion to crew chief and for postseason assignments. Just last week, U.S. District Court judge Michael R. Barrett ruled in favor of MLB to move the case to New York City instead of southern Ohio, where Hernandez's lawyer initially filed the suit.

Since Hernandez filed his suit in 2017, he was selected for the 2017 All-Star Game as well as postseason duty in 2017 and now 2018. His suit claims he had been passed over assignment because of a feud with Joe Torre, who is MLB's chief baseball officer.

ESPN Digital's Enrique Rojas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.